With all the recent protests around the country and university campuses about racial injustice, people are forgetting that it is very easy to ingratiate oneself into the mainstream American society. While protestors are busy blaming college administrators and law enforcement for their personal problems, maybe they can take a look in the mirror to see how they can affect some changes in themselves so that these issues don't keep recurring over and over again. To help out the clueless, here are my simple rules for how to become a model minority so that the police don't have to run you down just for walking down the street.
1. Get a good education. This country probably spends more money per pupil than any other country in the world, particularly for inner schools. Yet the test results are abysmal. Maybe if some of the students actually went to school and decided they wanted to learn something instead of harassing the teachers and other students then they can get a decent education.
2. Find and keep a job. Once somebody has an education that is actually at the high school graduation level, jobs surprisingly open up. Even if a good job is hard to find after graduation, just having the certificate makes it easier to apply to college to expand the job market even more. And when you get a job, keep plugging away at it. Don't quit just because you think your boss doesn't like you or you think time spent wandering the streets is more valuable than flipping burgers for $10 per hour. Most working Americans made far less than that in their youths and they still wound up with decent careers and lives. Work experience is valuable beyond the monetary compensation one gets in the biweekly paycheck.
3. Don't get pregnant or get somebody pregnant before marriage. If there is one thing that will keep most women down, it is to get pregnant in high school. Having a baby while trying to study in high school is difficult at best and usually leads to dropping out or suboptimal education. Guys, just don't get your girl pregnant unless you two are married. If you can't commit to a marriage, then you're not ready to commit to another life on this Earth. Walking away from your two minute mistake only shifts the burden of raising an innocent child to the mother and society at large. But if you don't care, then you are a douche bag who probably should have had a vasectomy.
4. Get married and stay married. Again it is about commitment and maturity. Once you are married, stay committed to it. Don't run off just because you had a fight about who spent $5 at Walmart. Don't file for divorce because somebody wanted to watch football while somebody else preferred the Kardashians. Divorce is one of the leading causes of financial insecurity that can afflict a person. It is also extremely detrimental to any children that might be involved. So stay married at all costs. Most arguments in marriages eventually become inconsequential as life goes on. If infidelity is involved, well then the guilty party was not mature enough to have a strong marriage to begin with.
5. Respect authority, such as parents, educators, and law enforcement. Nothing screams immaturity like somebody who thinks they know more than people who have had special training and been around much longer than you. When somebody tells you to sit still, stop talking, stop walking in the middle of the street, there's usually a reason for that. Don't feel like you're too good to follow the rules.
6. Stay off drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. You only have your health. Without it, you have nothing. If you're always in the hospital because you're sick or strung out, then it's unlikely you can keep a good job. Once you lose that, you'll realize how lucky you had it in the first place.
7. Find and nurture good friendships. Keep good friends around who look after your best interests. Don't hang out with people who only like you because you have money or own a nice car. True friendships survive when you are at your lowest point, which inevitably happens to everybody at least once in a lifetime.
8. Save money and spend wisely. It doesn't matter how much money one makes. Save as much of it as possible. And don't spend the money on stupid things like giant screen TV's, the latest cellphones, or drugs and alcohol. It's amazing how little one needs to provide for the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. Once you strip out extraneous costs like cable and cellphone plans, eating out at restaurants, and purchasing new clothes, one might actually be able to save some money.
9. Care about your neighbors. You know all those rundown neighborhoods that plague urban centers? Perhaps if its residents cared more about their blocks then it wouldn't be so poor. Report drug dealers to the police. Help a neighbor clean up a yard. Shop at your local businesses. Don't vandalize, rob, or burn down your neighborhood store just because you think you want to make a statement. It usually leads to businesses leaving for better areas, causing higher local unemployment and more disaffected youth, a downward spiral.
10. Repeat the same rules to the next generation. This process will take a long time. It took decades for Asians to transition from the Yellow Peril to a Model Minority. It will take time for society to notice this change in attitude and climate. But burning down cars and houses will not contribute to any meaningful long term changes.
Notice none of these rules involve any genetic factors involving presumably physical or mental superiority. They also don't require large infusions of money. We've spent trillions of dollars trying to rectify social inequality with hardly any noticeable difference. It does demand that people take a look at themselves and decide how they can change themselves to make their world a better place. As Michael Jackson sang in "Man In The Mirror,"
I'm starting with the man in the mirror,
I'm asking him to change his ways.
And no message could have been any clearer,
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, then make a change.
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